The Iowa Small Town Poll has tracked a sharp decline in membership in local service clubs. David Peters, a rural sociologist with Iowa State University Extension, says the poll started surveying residents in 125 Iowa towns in the early 1990s.
“When we compare 1994 to our latest data, which was last year, we see that membership in fraternal organizations — these would be groups like the Kiwanis Club, the Lions Club, Optimists, Rotary, Moose Club…Masons and the Odd Fellows, we found that membership over the last 30 years has fallen by over two-thirds,” Peters says.
In the early 1990s, about 20% of the residents in a typical small Iowa town were members of a fraternal group. “That’s dropped to around 5% to 6% today,” Peters says. “A lot of that is linked to aging of the population, the demographic of individuals who are more interested in those fraternal organizations has really kind of aged out and a lot of younger people haven’t really sought, for one reason or another, haven’t sought to join in these fraternal organizations.”
The Iowa Small Town Poll found membership in service clubs was relatively stable from 1994 to 2004 and the sharp decline started about 2010. “Again, that reflects the aging of the population and the demographic of who the members were,” Peters says. “…As they move away or pass away, there really isn’t a pipeline of younger members to take up their spots.”
National data shows membership all organization, including churches, has been on decline for the past 40 years. Peters says the decline has been particularly severe with service clubs. “People participate in their community much differently than they did 30, 40 years ago,” Peters says. “They participate much more virtually. It’s more ad hoc or whenever they have time, as opposed to most fraternal organizations that have a much more structured way to be involved.”
Peters says another factor is younger adults who might want to be involved are commuting longer distances to work and don’t have as much free time in their home communities. When service clubs disappear, Peters says small towns lose the infrastructure that organizes and raises the money for a variety of events and causes.
“This building of social connections within the community — that’s a very, very important component of small town life because that’s how you get things done,” Peters says, “and without these fraternal organizations and other civic organizations there’s no way to connect people — young or old people, more well off people with less well off people, new residents to town versus long time residents. These community organizations really facilitate bringing the community together.”
Peters said research shows younger adults do want to help their communities, but they want shorter meetings, more flexibility, virtual options and a group effort that’s not necessarily aimed at putting on the same events, year-after-year.